The present invention relates to a security closure for bottles of liquor and the like, that comprises a stopper cap having an end wall and a skirt with a security seal, and a sleeve that screws into the said stopper cap and fits onto a neck of a bottle.
Security closures for bottles of liquor and the like of this kind are known and are in wide use.
These closures are produced with all their components assembled in one piece which is then fitted directly to the neck of a bottle.
More specifically, after inserting an inner cap inside the stopper cap in such a way that it is held against the end wall of the stopper cap, the sleeve is screwed into the inner wall of the skirt of the stopper cap by engagement between a thread on this inner wall and a corresponding thread on the outer wall of the said sleeve.
Thus assembled, the cap is now fitted to the neck of a bottle in such a way that a snap engagement occurs between the above mentioned sleeve and the neck of the bottle.
More precisely, the snap engagement is caused by an edge of the sleeve being pushed over a ramp formed on the neck of the bottle and into a groove.
By this means the sleeve is fixed non-removably to the neck of the bottle, while the threaded engagement between this sleeve and the stopper cap allows the stopper cap to be unscrewed and rescrewed onto the neck of the bottle.
However, there is one major disadvantage with this product.
The force necessary to pass over the above mentioned ramp and bring about the snap engagement during the application of the closure to a bottle is about 70 kg. This force is taken directly by the sleeve which, being screwed to the skirt of the stopper cap, passes this force on through the threaded engagement between the respective threads of the sleeve and skirt.
This threaded engagement does not however provide satisfactory resistance to this force and the result is that the threads are either stripped or at least forced.
There is therefore a felt need to provide a security closure for bottles of liquors and the like that can be applied easily and securely to a bottle.
The problem addressed by the present invention is therefore that of devising a security closure for bottles of liquors and the like, whose structural and functional characteristics will be such as to satisfy the above mentioned requirements and at the same time overcome the problems presented by security closures of the prior art.
This problem is solved with a security closure in accordance with the main claim.